Hand-Picked Astonishments: Thumb Tips

Handpicked Astonishments is Paul Harris' new concept for teaching the cutting-edge magic on a wide variety of topics. The concept is simple. Rather than try to teach every variation or idea on a topic, he curates. Put simply, these are the absolute BEST five or six effects possible on each topic. No filler—just the ultimate routines you can perform with thumbtips, loops, the Invisible Deck, and card forcing. Taught by expert magician Joshua Jay in meticulous detail and clarity, this is the Tarbell Course for the digital age!

We begin our series with Volume 1: thumb tips, which is perhaps the greatest assemblage of magic possible with the humble thumbtip. Not only are all the basics covered, but you’ll learn how to make a “nesting” thumbtip, several effects you can perform anytime and anywhere, and even two larger routines suitable for bigger audiences. If you have never used a thumbtip before, this is the perfect primer. If you consider yourself a thumbtip expert, there is still a selection of brand-new, unpublished routines and concepts.

Customer reviews for Hand-Picked Astonishments: Thumb Tips

Damian

Runtime: 36:48 including trailer

In sum: For beginners: Fantastic; For experienced tt users: Decent.

Joshua Jay teaches 5 routines that demonstrate a varied assortment effects, including vanishing and reproducing, telekinesis, transformation or translocation (depending on how you perceive it), and ability to tell the future.

He also covers types of tts, care, psychology, angles and tt steal and load techniques. Most of the aforementioned will not be new to the experienced user, although as is common when revisiting the basics, you may pick up a tip or two.

1. Metal Bending—a small coin appears to bend in a specs fist. Use of the tt in this effect allows you to show your hands empty throughout the trick.

2. Saline Solution—Garrett Thomas’ adaptation of Dave Williamson’s great effect. Uses paper coffee cups instead of glassware. This adaptation reminds us to use it in Starbucks type places, but otherwise is basically the same.

3. Dollar Bill—Dollar bill appears to transform into a small amount of sugar. Dollar bill is found to have traveled to a previously selected, sealed sugar packet. (Markings prove it is the same bill.) The transformation is pretty and surprising.

4. Salt and Pepper—This is a double vanish and reproduction. Small amounts of salt and pepper are vanished one after the other, from each hand, and reproduced in each fist. Spectators hold each wrist, which may heighten the sense of impossibility when the spices reappear. Uses a new tt technique and presents an interesting avenue of exploration.

5. Fortune Cookie—Predict a fortune cookie fortune.

These are all quality effects and showcase the diversity of magic the tt has to offer. I don’t know if I agree that these are the best effects, but maybe that’s not a point worth quibbling over. They are great effects. Besides, who am I to argue “best effects” with Paul Harris?

Production quality is a bit poor. Worst of it is the camera work. The wide shot during the explanations is a bit too wide, and the close-ups are poorly planned and too short. Some small issues with sound and lighting, but I don’t think anybody cares.

Overall, this is a very good thumb tip resource. Highly recommended for beginners. Experienced users will be happy to pick up a routine or two that they’re not using.

Dan

I thought this would be good ... but had no idea just how good it would be! I haven't seen most of these effects before. They live up to their sales pitch of being the best thumbtip tricks and I look forward to seeing more of the handpicked astonishments series!

Peter

I consider myself pretty advanced, and I just love using thumbtips. So I wasn't sure if this was just going to be very basic stuff or not...MAN this is great! He goes over the basics, as well as really, really smart strategies you can work into thumbtip things you're already doing. BUT THEN he does some material I had NEVER seen, and it's all really strong. There is even this nesting thumbtip idea I think is SUPER! You can vanish and reproduce salt and pepper! This gets my highest reccomendation and I have bought a lot of stuff here before. I'm very, very happy with this!

Chris

Wow! What I loved about this DVD (other than Joshua Jay doing an amazing job performing and teaching) is that the effects are so DIFFERENT. He uses a thumbtip to illustrate tricks with coins, salt and pepper, bills, a fortune cookie, and more. Who would have thought? DEFINITELY something for everyone here!

Neil

So far I have really only been doing magic for about a year. I got Joshua Jay's MAGIC The Complete Course and he was a great teacher, so I wanted to learn more about the thumb tip. Wow! I am blown away at what is possible, and I really felt like I could watch this from beginning to end and learn a lot at my level. Bravo. I want the rest of this series now. On to the card forces one right...now! That's the great thing about the downloads. No more waiting for the mail. Instantaneous learning.

Sergio

I've been exploring the world of magic for the past 7 months. I needed a video to start playing around with my thumb tip, and here I found all I needed to explore the possibilities the tip offers.

Over the part seven months I narrowed my list of favourite artists to a few select names. Joshua Jay is one of them. Listening to him share his knowledge of all things magic is exciting.

I didn't give the video 5 stars just because the production could have been just a tiny little bit better if the video had been shot indoors or on a sunny day. But that's just It's me, I know. :)

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Who runs the Vanishing Inc. Magic Store?

Professional magicians Joshua Jay and Andi Gladwin are the cofounders of Vanishing Inc. Magic shop. But, every single member of the team is a skilled magician.